Look left: Ed Miliband and the trade unions, the Royal Mail, and MPs’ pay

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• On Tuesday Ed Miliband announced that he will end the automatic affiliation fee paid by union members to the Labour Party.

Under the current system, members of supportive unions pay an automatic levy to Labour unless they choose to opt out. Once the changes are enacted only those union members who deliberately decide to join the party would do so.

During his speech Miliband also announced spending limits and codes of conduct for candidates in Labour selections, open primaries for the 2016 mayoral contest, a call for all-party talks on capping donations, as well as a consultation on second jobs for MPs.

• As expected on Thursday it was announced that MPs are to receive a £6,000 pay increase to £74,000 a year.

However the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) also recommended cuts to things such as meal allowances and taxis, as well as a less generous pension scheme.

The announcement predictably caused outrage among members of the public, coming only weeks after George Osborne announced £11.5 billion pounds worth of spending cuts and a 1 per cent limit on public sector pay rises.

In a remarkable initiative the people of Lewisham have established the Lewisham Independent People’s Commission of Inquiry, which includes Baroness Warnock, Blake Morrison and Michael Mansfield QC, to look in detail at the government’s decision to close Lewisham Hospital.

The commission will look at first principles of the original NHS vision, how it has changed via the internal market and privatisation, as well as at where Lewisham Hospital stands in the recent changes to the NHS.

The full report by the Panel will be released in September.

Regressive of the week:

Simon Danczuk MP wrote a piece for the Telegraph this week in which he said that the politics of the Labour left “should be viewed in the same way as the views of the BNP”.

Sorry Simon, but the Labour left should not “be viewed in the same way as the BNP”. The BNP are a racist party who would like to forcibly repatriate non-white Britons.

We don’t always agree with the Labour left, but comparing them to the BNP is an appalling slur.

Evidence of the Week:

New figures released on Wednesday reveal that high earners are paying 35 per cent of their incomes in tax while the lowest earners are paying 36 per cent.

The figures, form the Office for National Statistics, are being partly blamed on the decision by George Osborne to increase VAT to 20 per cent in January 2011.

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